Martina Filjak, pianist – Biography (September 2026)

Croatian pianist Martina Filjak has established an international career thanks to her passionate, poetic playing and her brilliant technical mastery of the instrument. Her charismatic personality and magnetic stage presence captivate audiences and the press alike. Her extensive repertoire ranges from Bach to Berio and includes over 30 piano concertos. She is also committed to exploring lesser-known piano literature and unusual concert formats.

Martina Filjak first garnered international attention in 2009 by winning first prize and the Beethoven Prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition. Previously, she had won first prizes at the Viotti International Piano Competition in Italy (2007) and the Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona (2008), as well as being a prize winner at the Busoni Competition in Bolzano. Since then, she has performed with many renowned orchestras, particularly in the USA and across Europe, and has given piano recitals in prestigious concert halls. Some of these venues include Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Vienna Musikverein, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, BOZAR in Brussels, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, the Sala Verdi and Auditorio in Milan, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Casa da Música in Porto and the Salle Gaveau in Paris. She has also performed at prestigious festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the MITO SettembreMusica Festival, the Enescu Festival, the Ljubljana Festival, the Wonderfeel Festival in the Netherlands and the Sommets Musicaux in Gstaad.

During the 2026/27 concert season, Martina Filjak will again be performing with orchestras such as the Budapest Symphony Orchestra MÁV, the Sinfonieorchester Hagen, the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Murcia and the Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Weimar and the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock. She will also give a series of recitals and collaborate in various chamber music concerts.

Martina Filjak has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Michael Schønwandt, Josep Caballé-Domenech, JoAnn Falletta, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Marcus Bosch, Alexander Shelley, Hans Graf, Markus Poschner, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Paul Goodwin, Ivan Repušić, Pascal Rophé, Stefan Blunier, Tito Muñoz, Manuel Hernández Silva, Shiyeon Sung, Anja Bihlmaier, David Danzmayr and Lina González-Granados.

She has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Barcelona, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Orquestra Sinfónica da Casa da Música Porto, the Orquesta de Valencia, the Florida Orchestra, the Virginia Symphony, the San Diego Symphony, the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, the Japan Century Orchestra, the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM in Mexico, the Cape Cod Symphony, the Asheville Symphony and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg. In Germany she has performed with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, the Bremen Philharmonic, the Weimar State Orchestra, the Halle State Orchestra, the Mainz Symphony Orchestra and the Hamburg State Orchestra.

A recipient of various awards in her native Croatia, Martina Filjak is particularly proud to have been awarded the ‘Vladimir Nazor’ prize, the ‘Milka Trnina’ prize from the Croatian Association of Musical Artists, the ‘Orlando’ prize for her performance at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival and the ‘Judita’ prize for her performance of Dora Pejačević’s Piano Concerto at the Split Festival. In 2009, she was honoured by the president of the Republic of Croatia with the ‘Red hrvatskog pletera’ in recognition of her international achievements.

Martina Filjak’s passion for chamber music is evident in her collaborations with musicians such as Renaud Capuçon, Vadim Repin, Radovan Vlatković, Daniel Hope, the Szymanowski Quartet, the Amaryllis Quartet, the Ensemble Berlin, Felix Klieser, Andrej Bielow, Julian Steckel, Eckart Runge and Monika Leskovar.

Following her debut album with sonatas by Antonio Soler and a chamber music recording with the cellists Jan Vogler and Christian Poltéra, released by Sony Classical in 2013, her second solo album featuring works by Schumann, Bach/Liszt, and Scriabin was released in autumn 2016 on the Solo Musica label. Her album Light & Darkness was released by Profil Edition Günter Hänssler in 2020, receiving excellent reviews from international music critics. In 2026, three new releases were added to her discography, two of which were dedicated to the Croatian composer Dora Pejačević: one featuring chamber works on the label Croatia Records, and the other a double CD encompassing the composer’s complete symphonic works, recorded in collaboration with the Staatskapelle Weimar and Ivan Repušić and issued on the German label Audite. The New York Times included this recording in their “5 Editions of the Month” for May 2026. In the same year, the German label CPO released an edition of works by Boris Papandopulo, performed by the Rijeka Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Valentin Egel. Here, Martina Filjak is featured as the soloist in the composer’s virtuosic Vrzino kolo for piano and orchestra.

Martina Filjak resides in her native Croatia. As an active performer, her love of travel and ability to speak seven languages stand her in good stead.

Status: September 2026. Please do not use older biographies.
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www.martinafiljak.com